Bringing research findings back to society: lessons from tobacco control

Abstract

Social implementation, in which research results are applied to real world situations, is attracting greater attention. Tobacco control concerns the efforts for reducing damage to people’s health by introducing research findings regarding the health effects of smoking to society. Tobacco control is regarded as a model for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) control. Tobacco control measures offer many lessons for other health policies, such as nutrition and physical activity. The specific lessons learned include: research strategy procedures for policy realization; the development of intervention programs based on behavioral science; comprehensive policies that include environmental improvements involving changes in systems and laws; policy research that builds the evidence necessary for policy making and evaluates policy impacts; the importance of advocacy for policy realization; considerations of fundamental measures to counter essential barriers and pressures; and a system for promotion under international collaboration through a framework convention.

In order to improve the quality of health policy, it is necessary for health policy researchers to interact with each other across disciplines, discuss how to promote policy, and work together to realize policy. Advocacy, which is lagging behind in the Japanese context, requires the establishment of academic foundations and the development of methodologies, as well as the creation of a network for collaboration among various organizations and groups, including citizen movements and academic groups.